California has joined its fellow 49 states in politely petitioning the White House to secede from the union.

Since President Barack Obama's re-election last week, those unhappy with that outcome across the land have taken advantage of the We The People website (https://petitions.whitehouse.gov), that allows citizens to post petitions on just about anything that bugs them.

Established by -- and supply however much irony you care to here -- the Obama administration, the site promises that "Every petition that crosses the 25,000 signature threshold is reviewed and receives a response," according to White House spokesman Brandon D. Lepow.

A response that is not in any way legal or binding, by the way. But that hasn't stopped hundreds of thousands of aspiring Former- Americans from signing their -- or if you look at them closely, other states' -- secession petitions.

As of late Thursday afternoon, California's secession petition had a little fewer than 1,100 electronic signatures. It needs to reach that coveted 25,000 goal by Dec. 11 for the Golden State to get its own personal response from the administration.

As for what the petition- signers can more practically expect, well, the White House isn't quite ready to show it's hand yet.

"As a general rule, we don't comment on the substance of those responses until they're issued to the petitioners," Lepow explained.

By comparison, as of Wednesday, Texas had 99,000 backers for its secession petition. Lone Star Gov. Rick Perry, who's talked about seceding in the past, responded by disavowing any desire to go back to the good ol' Alamo days.

The California petition reads as follows:

"We petition the Obama administration to: Grant peaceful secession to the State of California in order to form a new and independent sovereign state.

"The citizens of the State of California must no longer be subject to arbitrary and unconstitutional laws issued by the Federal Government of the United States of America. Such laws that are counter to our Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness, as outlined in the Constitution of the United States of America continue to be ignored and overruled by the Federal Government.

"We, the citizens of the State of California, therefore, wish to pursue a separate course from that of the United States of America which is more in line with the wishes of the Founding Fathers -- that we and our posterity will be free to pursue our own destinies so long as the inalienable rights of others are preserved."

One citizen who did electronically sign the secession petition was Thousand Oaks resident Fred Roth.

"I'm one of those angry, old white men they're always talking about," Roth, 75, said with a laugh.

"I have a lot of reasons," the registered independent, who voted for Mitt Romney, added more seriously. "Number One, I've never been this upset with a president in my life, Democrat or Republican. I just feel that (President Obama) is totally selling us down the road to socialism. I'm very upset about Obamacare. And I'm upset about the illegal immigrant issue, which is, of course, the most intense here in California.

"I felt this was the only way that I could voice my protest," Roth added. "But there's one other thing: I really feel that this election was stolen. I feel that the counting was not fair and there were a lot of people who voted illegally."

Someone who has a little more expertise with secession efforts is Richard Close, who was chairman of the effort to have the San Fernando Valley break away from the city of Los Angeles a decade ago. Close's group, Valley VOTE (Voters Organized Toward Empowerment), got the measure on the ballot in 2002, but it failed in the citywide tally.

"Even though as a practical matter it may be impossible, I think people have to explore change if they're frustrated with a lack of services or a lack of local control," said Close, an attorney and president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. "And they should explore change, but they have to do it in a manner that's doable."

Asked if he'd sign on to the California secession petition, Close said "No, because as a practical matter, it's impossible. I'd never waste my time. But there's a difference between California separating and San Fernando Valley separating -- which I would sign."

For those who take the secession movement seriously we suggest they take in a new movie called "Lincoln." The last time Americans tried something like this, it didn't go all that well for them.

Left-leaning Arizonans attempted to get a measure on the ballot in 2011 that would create a new bastion for liberals in the state. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the measure would have given voters a choice to decide whether to chip off Pima County from the rest of Arizona, creating another state: Baja Arizona.
It's an idea that's long been discussed, but The Tucson Sentinel reports that the most recent action was spurred by a desire for greater control over local issues and discontent with proceedings at the Phoenix statehouse.
"Every bill we've heard about here is either anti-abortion laws or anti-Mexican laws. These are not laws that are geared toward solving the real problems that we have," David Euchner, treasurer of Start Our State, the group behind the secession push, told the Arizona Daily Star.

Republican Maine State Rep. Henry Joy brought forth legislation in 2010 to divide northern and southern Maine into two autonomous states.
According to Joy, the move was necessary because of a proposal that would have turned millions of acres of northern woodland into a nature preserve, leading to the forced relocation of residents in the area. While that measure never passed, Joy was apparently not keen on the prospect of being removed from his home turf.
Joy's bill, which eventually failed, would have allowed the northern portion of the state to retain the name Maine, while the southern section would have been ordained Northern Massachusetts.
Joy proposed similar legislation in 2005, which also failed.

Democratic Utah State Rep. Neal Hendrickson submitted legislation in 2008 for the creation of a new state within Utah.
Hendrickson contended that "citizens in the more populated areas of northern Utah have many interests that stand in stark contrast to the interests of southern rural areas of the state, which feel they do not have the influence on state policymaking that citizens along the Wasatch Front enjoy."
His bill, which he said would "provide the citizens of what is presently southern Utah increased access to their state government," didn't pass.

When Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) signed onto a non-binding resolution claiming constitutional overreach of the federal government in 2009, some may have thought it was simply a symbolic display meant to show solidarity with a right-wing base disgruntled after the passage of President Barack Obama's stimulus package.
A day later, however, Perry took his rhetoric to another level, implying that Texas might secede if "Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people," by strapping his state with unsustainable taxation, spending and debt.

Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), a Republican primary candidate for governor, piggy-backed off Texas Gov. Rick Perry's secession comments last year, telling Hotline on Call in a discussion about federal mandates in the health care law that states such as Tennessee might be "forced to consider separation from this government" depending on the outcome of the elections.
Wamp eventually lost the gubernatorial primary to Knoxville mayor and eventual winner Bill Haslam.

In 1998, Republican Maryland State Sen. Richard Colburn filed a bill that would have paved the way for the Eastern Shore of his state, as well as parts of Delaware and Virginia, to branch off into a separate entity called Delmarva.
Upset with regulations being forged in Annapolis and passed down to the Eastern Shore, Colburn encouraged Maryland's coastal residents to work toward a referendum that could get the measure on the ballot. It never passed muster.

Lawmakers across New York have long floated secession as a potential way to rectify what they see as imbalances in the burdens of taxes and other economic factors.
From local proposals to split New York City off into its own state, to pushes to turn upstate New York or Long Island into their own sovereign entities, all efforts at secession have failed.

The tiny Rhode Island enclave of Block Island made a stir in the 1980s when its residents pursued secession after being invaded by a population of moped-riding mainlanders.
The state senate and supreme court initially refused to allow the island's governing body to regulate the offending mopeds, which resulted in a successful vote to declare independence from the rest of Rhode Island. Massachusetts and Connecticut reportedly reached out during the process in the interest of annexing the island.
Weeks later, the Rhode Island legislature approved a bill giving Block Island regulatory control over mopeds on the island, which sufficiently appeased residents.

Republican West Virginia Delegate Larry Kump floated a proposal earlier this year to let a number of his state's panhandle counties secede and rejoin Virginia.
Citing economic concerns, Kump said his longshot legislation was an attempt to alleviate pressure brought on by the state's struggling manufacturing sector. It failed to gain support both among West Virginians and state legislators.